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What country am I living in?

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

The Air Force has created a document with the directive that leaders of all levels (including chaplains) may not “promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”

The U.S. Army has punished, for the second time, a highly respected and decorated officer in the wake of Muslim groups complaining about the approved course he taught on radical Islam at National Defense University.

In October, WND reported that Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley was fired from his position at the school for the way he conducted a class on how to respond to a variety of scenarios instigated by radical Muslims. A visitor to the class found the discussions offensive to Muslims and informed some 57 Islamic organizations, which then complained to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition to the firing, Gen. Dempsey promptly orchestrated a negative “officer evaluation report” against Dooley that deeply tarnished a career that had received only sterling reviews from West Point through nearly 20 years in the service. Dempsey never even discussed the incident with Dooley.

Now Dooley has been punished again, this time as he pursued the role of battalion commander. An Army command selection board studied Dooley’s record and candidacy for a command assignment. The five-member panel agreed to keep Dooley under consideration. Shortly thereafter, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who at the time was Army vice chief and subsequently became head of U.S. Central Command, overruled the board in a brief memo. His actions could effectively spell the end of Dooley’s career.

This is “political correctness” gone wild – in the U.S. military!

Christians are being persecuted. Common-sense teachings vitally necessary in the war against global jihad are being censored. And acts of terror by jihadists within the military, like the act of mass murder by Maj. Nidal Hasan, are considered acts of “workplace violence.”

Do we really expect to win a war like this?

Do we really expect Christians to serve in the military willingly under these conditions?

Does the Defense Department want its military services comprised only of atheists, Muslims and homosexuals?

“Members of our military should not be denied the very freedoms they fight to defend. Freedom of religion and speech are paramount among those freedoms,” said ADF Legal Counsel Joseph La Rue. “We appreciate the Pentagon’s clarification, but little or no evidence exists of coercive proselytization in the military, so we are still troubled over what motivated the original comments.

The Pentagon’s Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen said in its most recent statement that the Department of Defense “makes reasonable accommodations for all religions and celebrates the religious diversity of our service members.”

“Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization),” he said.

Christensen said that if a service member “harasses another member on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability, then the commander takes action based on the gravity of the occurrence.”

“Likewise, when religious harassment complaints are reported, commanders take action based on the gravity of the occurrence on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

The Department of Defense, Christensen said, places “a high value on the rights of members of the military services to observe the tenets of their respective religions and respects (and supports by its policy) the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs.”

He said members are free to exercise their constitutional right to practice their religion “in a manner that is respectful of other individuals’ rights to follow their own belief systems; and in ways that are conducive to good order and discipline; and that do not detract from accomplishing the military mission.”

Suddenly, after 230 years, the practicing of the Christian faith, the predominant religion among military personnel, is a threat to “accomplishing the military mission.”

I wonder what George Washington would have thought about that.

It all started when Mikey (yes, Mikey) Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation met with department officials and then wrote that Christians in the military are “monsters” who must be stopped from talking about their faith.

Weinstein had declared: “We face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”

In an interview with Fox News, Weinstein said the military needs to begin prosecuting Christians who share their faith.

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” he said. “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”

It seemed the military was listening.

After a private meeting between Weinstein and Pentagon officials April 23, a Pentagon spokesman declared, “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense.”

Christensen said at the time that “courts martial and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis, and it would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome in specific cases.”

Weinstein, according to Fox News’ Todd Starnes, told officials at the meeting that U.S. troops who evangelize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished, by the hundreds if necessary.

“Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” asked Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in a Fox News interview. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”

Boykin, a vice president at FRC, said such a policy would allow Christians within the military who speak of their faith to be “prosecuted as enemies of the state.”

“This has the potential to destroy military recruiting across the services as Americans realize that their faith will be suppressed by joining the military,” Boykin said. “Our brave troops deserve better. If chaplains and other personnel are censored from offering the full solace of the Gospel, there is no religious freedom in the military.”

Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty told Starnes: “Saying that a service member cannot speak of his faith is like telling a service member he cannot talk about his spouse or children. I do not think the Air Force wants to ban personnel from protected religious speech.”

Hello! What country am I living in?

Over 237 years ago, Gen. George Washington petitioned the Second Continental Congress to institute the military chaplaincy for the fledgling United States Army. On July 29, 1776, Washington introduced the chaplaincy as follows: “The Hon. Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third per month – The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives – To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger – The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”

That’s how America won its independence from the greatest empire in the world at the time.

What do you suppose will become of America under today’s leadership?

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